Dante Montecchio
Dante is that one useless friend you have: the mooch that tags along with a witty one liner or an awful pun, but contributes nothing besides an entertaining presence and generally bad ideas. He stresses that he is absolutely not an adventurer, claiming to the route of non-combatant and useless street musician. He can play you a song, but if you need someone that can swing a sword or shoot an arrow? You're barking up the wrong tree. If you're looking for someone to save the day, he's not your guy. He's just your average satyr, good for a joke, a drink, a night if it suits your fancy. Otherwise, you're better off looking elsewhere. Synopsis Your sassy best friend, Dante is a side character that shouldn't be that important. Yet somehow, inexplicably he works his way into the hearts of people and becomes important to them. His mood is infectious and his antics and misadventures have brought a new energy to the events around him. From extensive game nights to Dante's Bag of Everything™ to him getting initiated into an evil war God's cult by accident, there's never a dull moment with Dante. He always has new schemes and ideas and he pawns off all of his contribution on Stella, the only person that fully knows how intelligent and competent he is. She's his scapegoat, she's the tinkerer that comes up with ideas and strategies and he's just the noncombatant musician. At least, that was how it used to be. The life of a bum had been a grating existence, but one he had come to accept as just his lot in life. He is not made for a greater destiny, it's just not in his race or his aptitude, and people have died because he just isn't good at anything, and he guards that uselessness closely out of fear of what would happen if people trust him again. Due to the events that have brought him into the campaign, he's in the company with a new band of adventurers, the latest of several sets. However, he's found himself inside of a party that is really forcing him to work for his stay, having become an asset to them and slowly beginning to unveil his worth. For the first time in years he's been finding himself remotely useful. He likes the taste. Portrayal Appearance Weighing in at an impressive 130 lbs and standing at 5'6" Dante is-- pretty average. His features for the most part are that of an average satyr; with his body being that of a typical satyr's and full of curly fluff from the waist down to a rather unremarkable umber hair color. His two claims to fame are his eyes, which are honey gold like his mother's, and his horns; which don't do the typical satyr curve and instead run back along the curve of his skull. Remarkably, that makes them even more useless as weapons, and they seem more akin to a tiefling's horns than any of the more useful subsets. It certainly adds to his devilish charm, if nothing else. Personality * Sassy * Charming * Dramatic * Stubborn * Clever * Antagonistic * Brave * Playful Dante is a bit of a paradox, on the surface of his personality he's a jokester and an insufferable narcissist. Beneath that, he is a man faking his confidence because he is playing the part of a man that is useless, even though he's simply just very confident about his own lack of utility. However, beneath that he is a very intelligent entity that has a few niches that he absolutely excels at. Underneath that layer of possibly being very competent, he has no-self confidence and considers himself as worthless as he pretends to be when he pretends to be he's not. It's very complicated and confusing and it's best not to question it. On the other side of things: Dante is a charming young flirt that has an antagonistic tendency towards trolling and pranks and jokes, and he seems especially opportunistic with people who respond negatively to his antics. Beneath an air of jokey incompetence beats a brave, altruistic heart that wants to become a hero that one tells stories about. He has a dissatisfied defeatist undertone of also just trying to accept that that is a role he was never born to play. Still, he overtly has a vibe that wants nothing more than to do good; views diplomacy as an end-all to confrontation; seeks to protect his friends and colleagues with everything he is; and tries most of all to be empathetic and sensitive to their vulnerabilities, though he gets carried away and takes things too far at times. Abilities Music Having been a musician for the last 14 years, he has become quite talented at the craft. He is proficient with woodwind and strings, and he dabbles in brass. He specializes with a lute and a pan flute, though knows a wide variety of instruments. Strategy Whether he lets it privy or not, Dante is incredibly intelligent and sees patterns and solutions very quickly. He often excels in puzzles and games, and he also secretly shines in positioning in combat with his particular brand of cleverness. Trivia He is incredibly well-read, and knows a little bit about almost everything. Additionally, he can currently read three languages and speak two. He can read Common, Elven, and Goblin and can fluently speak Elven and Common. Magic Blending his mother's vast intelligence with his father's supernatural beauty, Dante has an interesting spin on psionic and enchanting magic that allows him to move foes and allies on the battlefield with ease, playing a game of chess with real consequences. Biography Dante was a satyr, is a satyr, and will ever only be a satyr. That's it. In actuality, Dante was the second son born to the Enclave's own Kassandra Montecchio, and maybe the 500th or 600th son sired by the lascivious satyr, Raphael Edwards. He had a quiet middle-class life where he dreamed of becoming a great adventurer to be revered. These dreams were browbeaten by two separate ideologies, the one that satyrs were worthless mooches and he as a satyr was destined for the same low-aspiration life, and the idea that supported this that he just wasn't good at anything that an adventurer needed to be good at. He was trained to swing a sword or shoot an arrow, and yet he failed on all fronts and never seemed capable of fighting proper. His family had faith in him, but he was quickly losing faith in himself. Prompted by his older brother, Mercutio, he left with his brother and a group of his brother's friends into a motley little adventuring party of their own. He took up the role of bard, a class he once mocked as a child for simply being the 'story tellers' and having no merit of their own to stand on (Maybe also in part making a mockery of his father's occupation as THE bard). Still, it was better than nothing, and he went along with excitement still beating in his young heart. In the following 11 years, the man that Dante has become is nigh unrecognizable to his past. He's fully given up on himself and thinks his greatest destiny is to sire a couple kids, drink the night away, play some tunes and just be happy that this is all he will ever be. Something about that really destroys him, but what does it matter what a satyr thinks? Relationships Family Kassandra Montecchio The baddest bitch Raphael Edwards A guy Mercutio Montecchio The catalyst Cassio and Cyrano Montecchio I heard you liked kids Party Stella "He's my best friend but sometimes I can't stand his smug stupid face." - Stella Yana "Ohh Dante. I never knew I could meet someone who loved trolling as much as I. Everyone else might sigh with you in their presence, but you make even the boringest of days fun." -Yana Carmen "He's one of my closest friends, one of the first people I really connected with after my rescue. I'm glad to see that he's starting to bloom, you know?" - Carmen Character Development / Game Timeline To be filled out Gallery StellaDante.png DanteBust.png Dante Square.png DanteToken.png StellaDanteSketch.png Dante stella altD.jpg